About ... the oil price
Caltex raised the petrol price at NZ $2.06 per litre for #91 in Auckland earlier today. This price is simply mad, and more people are now really feeling the pinch.
When I first settled in New Zealand, that price was around 90 cents.
I started to commute by bus around the time when the price of oil was somewhere around $1.80. The fuel cost simply does not justify the benefits of our car dependent lifestyle. I now need around $100 to fill up the tank, however, the monthly bus ticket, which costs just about the same.
If you are that sort of people who work in one place, and live in another place 50km away, I think it’s the time to change your lifestyle. Next time when you are on the move, try to move somewhere close to your workplace, or at least close to a public transport.
Yes, it is a little sacrifice of freedom of moving around, but it saves you a considerable amount of money, and our environment.
That’s also why we need to buy back the railway system, make it a not-for-profit service.
However, our daily commuting is only a small part of adverse effect resulted by this high oil price. Nearly everything in this society is sort of oil related. Food, daily commodities ... nearly everything we use was transported by oil-dependent transportation like Airplane or ships at some stage.
High oil price fuels inflation, especially on basic commodities like food.
Dr Cullen may has his point on not to cut the tax on petrol, but something has to be done to save suffering families, otherwise what’s the point to have a finance minister receives his salary from tax payer’s money, but doing nothing?
May I suggest removal of GST on basic food like milk and bread. It’s not major source of government income, yet it is important for the survival of families.
Also, taxing food is something that’s simply very wrong anyway.Right to life is one of the essential human rights in Universal Declaration of Human Rights, so why should any form of government or authority has the power to tax on my survival?
I also have serious concerns on what kind of roles oil companies have played. When the oil price increased oversea, they usually reacted by a price hike in very next day, regardless of the fact that the oil they purchased oversea need about a week or two to be transported to New Zealand.
But when the price oversea is down, those international oil companies suddenly all start to remember the fact that the oil we use here were purchased when the price was still high, so no price cut.
I read about this somewhere a long time ago, it was said that government was monitoring the profit margin of those oil companies, and the margin was quite consistent.
I have found it very hard to believe.
Anyway, we are in the middle of a crisis. My prediction is that the #91 price will peak about $3.5~4 a litre before any relief from international market.
No matter where the price will peak, it is very unlikely that the oil price can every be reduced the “good time” level, i.e. 90 cents per litre.
Unless ... one day we suddenly discovered a large reservoir of oil below Southern Alps or Auckland Islands, or genetic modifications enable us to grow a pair of wings on everyone’s back.
Unfortunately, both are very unlikely to happen in a near future.
So a total lifestyle change is the way to go.
